High school banking alive in WNY

Schools in Western New York are halls of learning – and in some cases, they’re also halls of banking.

That’s right: banking.

Lake Shore High School students came out in force last November when Evans Bank N.A. held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a “branch” at the school. Evans calls it the Academy of Business and Finance, a youth-run operation that offers deposit services to students and faculty. The bank also installed a full-service ATM that’s available during school hours.

“We’re a community bank, founded in 1920 here in the Southtowns, and (we) get involved in the community,” says Kevin Brady, vice president of marketing. “And one of the segments is financial literacy among youth. This is one way of fulfilling our mission. It’s something that makes sense to us.”

School-based bank programs are collaborations between banks and schools that share a mutual interest in providing financial education to students, according to John Dugan, former Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Treasury Department. Students involved in such programs get hands-on learning while the banks get increased visibility.

Brady agreed, saying, “It has been a good relationship and we enjoy doing it. It’s a win-win for the bank, the school and the kids.”

The Angola-based Evans Bank has had two Finance Academy branches in the West Seneca school district since 2000, he noted.

“We think it’s important for the future to be teaching youth about good financial practices and banking. They’re our future employees and our future customers,” he said.

The American Bankers Association’s Laura Fisher, meanwhile, said school banking programs generate interest in savings accounts while promoting community goodwill. And that’s good for everybody.

“It’s extremely popular,” says Fisher, executive director of the ABA’s Education Foundation, based in Washington, D.C. “More and more research shows that it’s not enough to tell kids, ‘You should be saving.’ There are little nudges that must be applied to push them toward that behavior.”

Bank of Akron, meanwhile, is in its fourth year of maintaining a branch at Lancaster High School. Vice President John Evoy said there’s a fresh crop of students every year who express interest in getting involved, and the bank trains an operations manager and marketing manager, among other positions. The branch is student-run.

“During the school year, we could have as many as 40 students working at the branch at various times throughout the day because they each staff it for one period,” Evoy said.

“It’s what we call a full service-type branch where they can open accounts and take deposits. Obviously they can’t do loans or give cash back, but they do take deposits. There’s also an ATM on-site so students can access their funds that way,” he said.

Bank of Akron has every intention of continuing the program, according to Evoy, who manages the Lancaster branch office.

“I can tell you that the bank is interested in financial literacy at the student level, and really, that was the motivation behind this – giving students the chance to look at the inside and to increase financial literacy,” he said.

Fisher of the Education Foundation said the American Bankers Association doesn’t track in-school programs so numbers are hard to come by, but they are alive and well in many parts of the country.

“Some (banks) are looking for young people to work as tellers, as customer service reps. It’s a good way to introduce young people to banking,” she said. “There’s a lot of goodwill in the community when you’re interacting with a student and encouraging saving.

“Over the past 15 years, there has been a lot of awareness about saving. On the flip side, there has been a lot of movement on the consumer side away from saving. So this is something that banks have been involved with – encouraging young people to save,” Fisher said.

School bank programs are “experiential learning at its best,” she said. “It’s actual hands-on learning, which tends to stick with kids longer than just being talked to about it. They’re actually experiencing what it’s like to be saving their (money).”